Thursday, October 26, 2017

We’ve enjoyed calling Trump a fascist. And he has all the
reptilian reflexes, plus the innate grasp of a debased and compliant media that
goes with the calling. But reflexes aren't enough; fascism takes brains too, a
conception, an ideology, a vision -- however foul.

Bannon brings that to this rolling coup; he brings ideas. Remember
that it was Bannon, above all, who crafted the Trump candidacy.

That Bannon is no longer in the WH only empowers him, giving
him full leeway to shape the Republican Party into a vehicle for right-wing
nationalism, as racist and bellicose as it needs to be.

(Bannon bridles at little wars, that benefit his base not at
all. He's right when he calls Bush the worst ever, and tags him for Iraq.
Bannon has bigger fish to fry, aims at bigger geopolitical confrontations. Bannon
is going after China.)

Maybe this will all blow over and be remembered as a strange
glitch in American history before some sort of regression to a democratic norm.
Maybe. But I think what's taking shape is a genuine long-term, American style fascist-type
threat.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

The Chinese have a saying: may you live in interesting
times. It's intended as a curse. The rabbis say much the same thing when they
pray: May Moshiach
come and may I not live to see it.

Details about Moshiach
aside, there can be no doubt that we are living in dread & interesting
times, to wit, among other things: the Republican Party is fracturing.

Lest we yell in triumph, remember this is precisely asSteve Bannon would want it.

Bannon wants to purge the Republican Party not only of
moderates — put paid — but even tried and true right-wingers. He wants to
replace them all with zealots and fanatics of the Trump persuasion, committed
to crushing the media and civil liberties in favor of a white supremacist mass
movement, not averse to some neo-Nazi impetus.

Emphasis here on movement, emphasis on crushing and on Trump
as supreme leader and enabler (or as Milo Yiannopoulos calls him "Big
Daddy.")

It's time to read some history, and not only American
history. Think about interesting times in Europe, while you're at it.

Though the parallels are necessarily inexact and though we
have a long way to go before the victory of totalitarianism in the United
States, it's worth knowing that Bannon's goal is nothing less than following/guiding
Trump into the triumph of Fascism with American Characteristics.

We are living in interesting times. As for me, I see no
signs of Moshiach,
though some of his supporters think Trump fits the bill.

Monday, October 23, 2017

Something strange and transformative is going on, strange
and transformative enough, at any rate, to get me to post in favor of Megyn
Kelly.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/vGGEefKbc4k?rel=0&enablejsapi=1

In a response, Bill O'Reilly said, "never had any problem
with Megyn Kelly." So what, Bill? Don't you get it? She's not saying you
had a problem with her. She's saying she has a serious problem with you, and,
btw, FOX, your network.

. . .

I'm sorry James Toback is being accused of sexual abuse. I'm
the kind of liberal who'd rather the charges swept the likes of right winger
ideologues like O'Reilly away. But I'm also the type of liberal who thinks, let
the chips fall where they may. Even if it means bringing down a divided personality
like Harvey Weinstein, who marched for women's rights and contributed significantly
to liberal causes, while committing serial, serious abuse. And even if it means
opening — but not closing, we don't know yet — the book on James Toback.

I'd rather Toback was not guilty. I'd rather Ben Affleck was
not complicit. I'd rather Quentin Tarantino had nothing to regret or apologize
for. I'd rather so much of the story was not muffled for so long because women
were bullied into silence in exchange for money.

I'd rather not be anxious that a sexual witch hunt is likely
to follow in which men are judged guilty without any presumption of innocence,
just because they are men. Maybe it's due to my long experience of political extremism
that I suspect such a thing is already on the way.

But this is how the story breaks. And let it keep breaking.
Let the chips fall where they may.

What's happening is transformative. We're not at the end of
it yet, but when we are, things won't be the same, for the best.

Friday, October 20, 2017

I think I walked out on Django — more predictable QT revenge
porn, one great blast of fantastic violence purging or compensating for all evil,
Nazism, slavery, what have you — and if not I certainly meant to. But I like,
have viewed and reviewed, many Tarantino films, even if they too often lately reduce
to Kill Them All.

But my respect for Tarantino as a man was bolstered immeasurably
by his comments about Harvey Weinstein. Ina NY Times piece he is quoted as saying, about failure to
act on what he kept hearing about Weinstein, even from Mira Sorvino, his lover
at one point:

“I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard . . . If
I had done the work I should have done then, I would have had to not work with
him.”

He added:

“What I did was marginalize the incidents. . . Anything I
say now will sound like a crappy excuse.”

Not as crappy as dodges or inadvertent and peculiar comments
by Ben Affleck and Woody Allen.

I think it's particularly brave for Tarantino to aver that
if he really knew then what he fully knows now, he wouldn't have been able to
work with Weinstein. It's brave because Weinstein produced, touted and promoted
Tarantino, propelling him to the celebrity status he occupies today.

One question I have, and haven't heard addressed: Would
Tarantino and films by other of Weinstein’s bravos, have seen the light of day
minus Weinstein’s hi-powered, bullying tactics?

Monday, October 16, 2017

There's no doubt that Harvey Weinstein's behavior was
heinous and punishable. It's good that he's being reduced to zero, and let that
be a lesson to others.

And then there are the onlookers, the buddies who knew and stood
by. I'm sorry to think Ben Affleck may be one of them.

They should be confronted, too, here as in every case where
passive onlooking is a form of complicity.

But this being the United States let's remember there's always
a danger of overcorrection, in this case political correctness run amok.

Political correctness, or some impulse drawing from it, can be seen when protestors try to deny viewers
the right to see Dana Schutz's painting of Emmett Till, and even the right of a
white artist to conceive of and execute such an image.

That's the kind of overcorrection for racism that corrects
for nothing and is sick in its own right.

In a piece for The Forward, Cathy Young writes

McCarthyism was not a good response to the real problem of
communist espionage and infiltration. Sexual McCarthyism . . . is not a good
response to the real problem of sexual predators.

The comparison to McCarthyism may be questionable but this
being America it's worth considering.

Friday, October 13, 2017

So after a fulfilling week as president, in which he kicked
the supports out from under the Affordable Care Act, raised the chances of
military confrontation with Iran, insulted Puerto Rico, and groped Rose McGowan
— no, this just in, that was the other (chazar) pig in the news — Trump heads
out to a golf course for some much deserved R&R

On the way out, he takes a call from Stephen Bannon, who's
gushing.

- Mr. President, I thought you were slowing down but no, you're
ruining things faster than I thought possible. The fact that you're old and fat
and, let's face it, stupid doesn't bother you at all.

- No! Stupid doesn't bother me. Without tons of stupid,
where would I be?

You watch, Bannon. After a bit of golf, just a bit, many
steaks and some shots from my private barrel of 10,000 year old Scotch, I'll be
back to bust more stuff up. Did you think I forgot about that Korean pudge
ball, that cock-eyed dumpling? You wait, I'm going to turn him into kim chi.

- Surprised you know about that Korean delicacy. I thought
you were strictly a steak, potatoes, and Melania type of guy.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Ecce homo is an old Latin phrase generally translated as
"Behold, this is a man." This generally leads to philosophical exposition
on the human condition.

Yiddish has a version with a somewhat different slant:

Oich mir a mensch.

This, loosely, translated, means: You kidding, this is human?

The Yiddish came to mind today when my dental hygienist, a
fluent Yiddishist, and I were bantering about Trump.

Another Yiddish phrase strikes me as apt: A shtick fleish
mit eaigen — A piece of meat with eyes.

"A shtick fleish mit eagen" doesn't only cover
walking dead types, zombies and the like; it also refers to moral and mental absolute zero nothings like Trump who,
if I believed in such things, I might construe as a consummate construction of
the Devil, something the Teyvl (Yid. for Devil) has sent into our world in
order to cause maximum harm.